


I want to dance like him

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged up characters, M/M, it has a happy ending, san junipero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 07:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15881784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This is a San Junipero AU for Klance. Obvious spoilers for that episode of Black Mirror if you haven’t watched it. In the show San Junipero is set in the 80s and in this fic it’s set in the 2010s because it’s the era I’m familiar with. I would be so honored if you dive into this fic without watching it and I really hope I would do it justice because that episode is one of my favorite things in the world. (As is Klance duh) English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes. And this is also my first complete fanfic. The story belongs to Charlie Brooker and the characters belong to each other.





	I want to dance like him

**Author's Note:**

> This is a San Junipero AU for Klance. Obvious spoilers for that episode of Black Mirror if you haven’t watched it. In the show San Junipero is set in the 80s and in this fic it’s set in the 2010s because it’s the era I’m familiar with. I would be so honored if you dive into this fic without watching it and I really hope I would do it justice because that episode is one of my favorite things in the world. (As is Klance duh) English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes. And this is also my first complete fanfic. The story belongs to Charlie Brooker and the characters belong to each other.

It was the first time Keith went to San Junipero. It had been raining before. The dusk sky overhead was a deep purple. _How to Talk to Girls at Parties_ was showing in the cinema with its bedazzling poster staring at him. He shook his head as if to reassure himself, _this is going to be fine._

There was a couple of people walking and talking on the street. They seemed to have been here for a long while. They all wore denim jacket and skinny jeans or whatever was popular now. Keith tugged on his cropped red jacket. He felt a bit ridiculous now.

He had never been here before although it was long overdue. Keith decided to go into a bar called _Eden_. That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re in San Junipero, to have fun. Keith is unfamiliar with what to do at a bar at night. He would be totally comfortable catching a movie or hiking. But in the end, all he ordered was a coke in his hand while he sat alone at a booth.

 

Suddenly, a guy in a blue polo shirt walked up to him, arranging him comfortably in the seat beside Keith, and whispered, “Whatever I say, just go along with it.”

 

Keith was nonplussed, “What?” But there was no moment for him to finish his question. Another guy followed the first guy here and demanded, “You’ve been avoiding me this whole night, Lance! What did I do? I thought we had a good time last week.”

 

“Wes, I just saw my best friend from high school whom I haven’t spoken to in years! We need to catch up. Who knows when will be the next time I see him, considering.”

 

“Oh.” He deflated, “I guess I’ll see you later then.”

 

Watching him make his way through the dancefloor, Lance extended his hand to Keith, “The name’s Lance. Thanks for not running out on my pretend reunion. What’s your name?”

 

Keith shook his hand and said “Keith.”

 

“Keef?”

 

“Keith.” He said it a little louder this time. The music from the stereos was deafening.

 

“I know. I was just messing with you.” He grinned. Keith didn’t know how to catch up after that. It’d been so long since the last time he held a real conversation.

 

“Let me buy you a drink.” Lance decided as he shot up from the booth and walked straight towards the bar. It was a moment before Keith realized he needed to follow him.

 

* * *

 

 

“Two Long Islands.” lance said to the bartender.

 

Keith quickly said, “I’m fine with coke.”

 

“You hear something?” Lance winked at the bartender, and by winking he just closed and opened both of his eyes quickly, which was a sad attempt as winking, but Keith found it adorable and didn’t say anything about his drink orders.

 

After they got their drinks and settled down Lance started eyeing Keith from his mullet” to his red crop jacket to his combat boots. Keith felt a little uneasy and quietly asked, “What?”

 

“Nothin’, just internally assessing your fashion choices. Don’t get me wrong. You look… unique and don’t give care about what’s popular and trending.”

 

Keith didn’t know what to say after that, is that a compliment? And then the music changed, and Lance’s face lit up, “We have to dance to this song!” and grabbed Keith’s hands.

 

_She’s had a face straight out a magazine, god only knows but you’ll never leave her._

He didn’t know what to do. He had never danced in front of other people before. And now people around him are dancing like there’s a secret to it and he had somehow missed it.

 

Lance was dancing like nobody was watching, almost immersed in the music regardless of how crowded and stuffy the club was, and only saw Keith just standing here. “Just mimic my moves!”

 

Keith tried, awkwardly, and had to convince himself that people smiling weren’t mocking him. The music blurred in his ears. Colors flashed between Lance’s face too fast for his mind to register. He was beautiful in a way that made his heart sink to the floor, dragging his body with it.

 

_You look so cool, you look so cool…_

Keith ran out of the bar and to the alley, and didn’t turn his head to the questions yelled at behind him.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance followed him out. Keith wasn’t expecting it.

 

“I’m sorry. I get nervous when there’re too many people and not enough air”

 

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have pushed you into dancing.” Lance said, settling himself beside Keith, except this time they were sitting on a dumpster but he didn’t seem half affected by it.

 

“This is my first time here. Everything is… new to me.”

 

“Well San Junipero is a party town! Didn’t you come here to have fun?” Lance moved an inch closer to Keith subtly, but not as subtle as he thought he was being.

 

“I guess I don’t know how to have fun. People always told me I’m too serious and grumpy.”

 

“People like that don’t follow strangers into the dancefloor.”

 

“Ha you’re right.”

 

And then silence fell. It had started raining again.

 

“Do you want to go to my place?” Lance carefully offered, quietly but clearly, like a magic spell.

 

Keith blushed, which he hoped Lance couldn’t see in the dark. “Oh, you’re nice.” He paused. “But I have a fiancé. It’s… complicated.”

 

He could see Lance’s face drop visibly and he felt bad. He didn’t need to say that. He just had to sabotage his one good thing on his first visit.

 

“Well, see you around then.” And then he watched Lance run out into the rain, leaving tiny ripples behind him, before disappearing in the rain a second later.

 

“Good job, Keith.” He murmured to himself, looking up at the night sky. His hair was wet from the rain, almost blocking his vision.

 

* * *

 

 

A week later

 

He saw Lance again in San Junipero. Well, he saw him on the dancefloor and followed him to a darkened corner.

 

“So… How’ve you been?”

 

“The same as the last time you saw me.”

 

“Can you show me around this town? I’m new here. It’s only the second time I’ve been here.”

 

“How about my place?”

 

Lance showed Keith his motorbike which he admired greatly. They set out towards the highway leaving a trail of sand behind them. Keith almost felt as if he was in one of those cliché romcoms and he felt scared at the same time. But he pushed that thought aside and can’t help but yelled and laughed at the top of his lungs.

 

But suddenly an oncoming vehicle stormed at them, the blinding headlight almost swallowing them. Lance swerved his bike just narrowly to get out unscratched.

 

Keith was frozen. His arms were wrapped around Lance’s waist so tightly like a drowning man clinging to a log. A moment later Lance broke the silence, “Buddy, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Which wasn’t very convincing.

 

When they finally got to Lance’s place, Keith was taken back by how homely this place looked like. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but certainly not this. He picked a framed photo from the table. In it was a middle-aged woman that had Lance’s blue eyes.

 

“Do you miss your Mom sometimes?” Keith whispered, but the question was swallowed by a kiss. It had felt so real. Keith immediately stopped thinking about everything else because everything was warm and his heart was beating like it had never before.

 

“I don’t know how to do this,” Keith spoke through his breath, “You have to show me.”

 

Lance just answered with more eager kisses.

 

* * *

 

 

They lay awake in bed, listening to the desert wind that carried faint scent of leftover heat of the sun. It’s chilly at night in the desert. Lance put his arm around Keith’s waist.

 

“You’ve never been with a man before?”

 

“No.”

 

“Woman?”

 

“Nah.”

 

“But you have a fiancé.”

 

“Like I said, it was complicated.”

 

“Well, this isn’t complicated.” Lance vaguely gestured at their surroundings, “And I like this. I enjoy spending time with you.”

 

“I bet you say that to all the people who happen to be in your bed.”

 

This is the first time Keith caught Lance at a loss for words and he’s quite impressed with himself.

 

The clock turned from 11:59 to 12:00.

 

* * *

 

 

A week later

 

Keith returned to San Junipero hoping to find Lance again, but to his disappointment. He wasn’t at Eden. He even tried his house at the end of the desert. All he could do was sit by the house and watch the sun set, painting the sky into orange, and then purple, and then the deepest blue. He tried to memorize the saturation of the colors alight. It’d been so long since the last time he saw a sunset like this before.

 

A rush of feelings from his old days came back without warning. But Keith decided San Junipero is the best thing that ever happened to him since the accident. He wanted to cherish the hours he got to spend here, with or without the company of a certain man that might or might not have found his way into his heart and refused to leave.

 

Weeks went by, Keith still saw no sight of Lance everywhere he went. He tried to stay unfazed by the absence of him. He explored the town set in a desert by himself. Keith went on his own little adventures in the nooks and crannies of the sunset town, trying to make up for all the lost years since his youth. He made a few friends along the way. Some of them are tourists, same as him. Some are locals. Hunk, a local, said time became lost here once you spend all of it here. However, a small idea started to take root in Keith’s mind. This town is better than everything else in his life. Is he ready to take the next step and become a local here?

 

Once, Keith went back to Eden, because he liked drinking nonalcoholic drinks while watching the crowd there, and there were amazing video games in the corner for people who didn’t like dancing. There he saw Wes again. He decided to ask him if he had seen Lance recently.

 

“You, too, huh? Try a different era. The 2000s or something. He isn’t one who gets settled.”

 

It wasn’t that Keith was seeking out Lance on purpose. But he had seen almost everything the town had to offer, so what’s the harm in going to a different era? This week, he had the TCKR chips pinned to his forehead and chose the 2000s but he didn’t change the way he dressed. He was comfortable in the outfit.

 

Eden was still there. The same building. Except it went by a different name. Keith wondered if everything inside was still the same.

 

Everything was the same and yet everything was different. People were dancing to either the best music or the worst music Keith had ever listened to. He couldn’t decide which one. They were dressed in obscure clothes, and to Keith’s horror, himself wasn’t so out of place as he imagined.

 

In the corner of the room, Keith saw him. Lance was playing one of the arcade games excitedly with a girl. The kind where you had to step on squares at the beat of the music. Apparently, he’d been at it for a while because he seemed out of breath. Lance highfived the girl as the game ended. And he saw Keith too.

 

Keith was suddenly nervous and didn’t know what to say. He started him for a few seconds before walking out the bar, hoping he would follow. (He had no idea if he would follow.) He climbed onto the rooftop of Eden from the fire escape because he liked to watch the night sky and the constellations there, the kind you didn’t get to see in the real world night sky.

 

After a few moments, Lance was sitting next to him.

 

“So… have you been avoiding me?” Keith started.

 

“What? No! What are you talking about?”

 

Keith just started at him.

 

“Fine. Maybe a little. You being there changed… things.”

 

“What things?”

 

“You made me feel things. And I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved with real feelings. I just wanted to have fun before I have to go.”

 

Keith was shocked at how open Lance was about his feelings. He wasn’t ready to confess his feelings yet, but he supposed it was pretty obvious from his face as he imagined his expression was mirrored on Lance’s face also. In a moment of what almost felt like a trance, his hand cupped Lance’s cheek, as he closed the distance between them.

 

They were back at Lance’s house at the edge of the desert. Before him was the endless stretch of sand. Keith felt the loneliest he’d ever been because before he didn’t even know what real loneliness felt like. He wondered if it was possible to have an illusion here, considering San Junipero itself was already an illusion.

 

Lance settled down next to him, bringing a blanket with him and wrapping it around Keith’s shoulders. “A penny for your thought.”

 

“Are you going to become a local here?”

 

“Why? No.”

 

“Why not? It’s so amazing here.”

 

Lance didn’t answer but proceeded to ask, “Where do you live?”

 

“You didn’t answer my question, and why do you want to know where I live?”

 

“So that I can come visit?”

 

“It’s not a happy place.”

 

“Wow, calm down edgelord. I was just trying to be friendly.”

 

Keith sighed, “You wouldn’t like me if you met me in real life.”

 

Lance faked a laugh. It sounded like a cough. “Yeah. I’m 75 and have cancer. I’m a real catch.”

 

Keith gave in, “I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.”

 

“Colorado Springs!” Lance sounded delighted.

 

“Yeah whatever.” And he proceeded to tell him his address. He didn’t know what to do when he saw him in the real world. Lance just had a personality he couldn’t refuse. It’s ridiculous.

 

* * *

 

 

In the afternoon, Lance arrived at his ward. Keith just lay there and heard him say “Hey mullet.” Although he didn’t even have a mullet now.

 

Romelle, his nurse, as well as his fiancé, kept the conversation with Lance. “When Mr. Kogane was 21, he came out to his parents. They didn’t take it well so he ran away on his motorbike. A terrible accident with a drunk driver. And he’s been like this ever since. So you know the San Junipero cloud is a big deal for him. The plan is for him to go with the euthanasia and just get settled there. The euthanasia requires the consents of the patient, the doctor, and a direct family member, but he got no family left for the third signature.”

 

Keith listened. It was so strange to hear one’s life being summarized into a few sentences.

 

“So you’ve got to marry him and be that third signature.” Lance smiled bitterly.

 

“My girlfriend already gave me the okay.” Romelle said earnestly.

 

“I’m sure.” Lance chuckled, “Would it be okay if I borrowed an extra pair of chips to talk to Keith later?”

 

“Why? Okay.”

 

* * *

 

 

Keith was at Lance’s house in San Junipero again, except this time it was day. Lance smiled cheerily, “Heard you’re gonna get married.”

 

“Uh, yeah.” Keith answered awkwardly.

 

“Doesn’t sound very romantic, does it?” Lance got down on one knee, “I don’t have a ring with me now but, doyouwannamarryme?”

 

“What’s that?” Keith couldn’t believe his ears. “I can’t hear you.”

 

“I said, do you want to ma-“

 

“Yes, yes, yes.” Keith was on the ground too and he endeavored to cover Lance’s face with kisses.

 

* * *

 

 

Later, a pastor came to his ward, he and Lance got married, on the same day he was about to die. And everything after was a blur. He felt his life leaving him, and at the same time he was born into another. A new plane of existence where the sky was pink and sand howled at the stars. Keith got his rest of forever, a life after death where he got to live to his fullest.

 

He sat by his house, trying to grip this new reality. Before, he only got to spend five hours here every week. Now he was a local. A resident. His heart leapt at the infinite ideas that popped into his head. He could venture through the whole continent, go to places he’d always wanted to go, places so much better than the real world.

 

Keith was absorbed in his grand plan as the night fell, and Lance was there on his new car.

 

“So.”

 

“Soooo.” Lance was grinning ear to ear.

 

“Honeymoon?” Keith couldn’t contain his happiness. He felt as if his heart was about to explode.

 

“Let’s go! Whoohoo!”

 

They sat on a hill overlooking the city after stopping at almost every one of their old haunts. People gave them congratulations and even people they didn’t know were hugging them.

 

“This is the best day of my life.” Keith couldn’t stop himself before he realized how weird that statement was.

 

“So are you going to stay?”

 

“No.” said Lance quietly. Keith remembered that ver answered him the first time he asked him about it and he was afraid of the answer he might hear.

 

“I thought that, since you married me, now that you would.”

 

“I’m glad that this place is working out so well for you, but it’s not the same for me.

 

“Is it because your wife didn’t pick this place and now you feel like you owe her?”

 

“My wife didn’t pick this place for the same reason I won’t pick this place. Because when our daughter died ten years ago, there was no San Junipero yet. I don’t want to live the rest of my digital life in a place she never got to know.”

 

“I… didn’t know.” Keith felt his heart drop.

 

“Of course you didn’t.” Lance snapped indignantly. He got up and walked toward his car. Keith was stunned. _Is this the end of my first marriage? It’s not even 24 hours yet._

He watched Lance drove away at a speed that is dangerously illegal in a fictional world. He almost felt his heart stop when he heard the loud thump coming from the road ahead. Keith willed himself to be near there, in the wreckage of Lance’s new car. He covered his mouth in horror seeing Lance’s still body.

 

And then he moved, just barely, looked up at him almost as if he was trying to say something. And he dematerialized, Keith’s hands still hanging in the air.

 

* * *

 

 

A few months later.

 

Keith drove the familiar road he had driven before. He didn’t have to drive, but he enjoyed driving now, the feeling of wind brushing through his hair and the sun kissing his skin. He no longer wore that hideous outfit that blended in with the 2000s scene. He was a married man now. He had asked Lance why they weren’t living together yet. He said that they needed to keep the sense of fresh feeling. They had forever ahead of them. They wouldn’t want to get tired of each other too quickly. Keith doubted it. He didn’t think he could get tired of Lance in any reality. But he agreed that they lived in different places.

 

Keith honked loudly in front of Lance’s house. “Give me another minute!” yelled Lance from inside the house.

 

And really, they had all the time in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading it! The title is from Feel Real by Deptford Goth. The song they danced to for the first time was Robber by The 1975.


End file.
